Couple's Date Night

"You think you're so hot," she sneered. Her true colors were bleeding through. "You couldn't even hold onto Brandon."

"I wasn't working very hard at it," I told her. "I think I must have sensed that he wasn't worth working for. Come on, Dianne. It's time to end this charade. I'm leaving. Do you want a ride home?"

"I'll call a cab," she said. I guess she didn't like my driving style.

I dropped some money on the table and never looked back.

When I got to Dad and Mom's, a little blonde blur met me at the door. "Mommy!" she jumped into my arms.

"Hey, angel," I hugged her up. "Where's Gram and Grampa?"

"In the backyard," she said. "They're cooking."

I let her down and we went out on the patio. The delicious smell of smoking meat filled the air. I hugged them and Dad got me a beer.

"You making enough for Tessa and me?" I asked.

"You know me, baby," Dad said. "I always make enough to feed an army. You girls staying?"

"I need to talk to both of you," I told him. "Tessa, run inside for a minute, angel. Watch a cartoon, okay? I need to talk to Gram and Grandpa." She went in and I sat my parents down.

"We may be staying for a while," I told them. "Brandon tried to get me to join a swinging club with Bill and Dianne today. I'm kicking him to the curb."

"Jesus, Smith," Mom said. "You didn't have a hint?"

"No, I knew something was wrong," I said. "I didn't know anything about this, but I knew something was wrong for several months. He's been acting weird for a while."

"You want me to go have a talk with him?' Dad asked.

"You mean go over and kick his ass?" I laughed. "No, Dad. I know you could and I'm grateful, but I'm a big girl. If I wanted to do that, I'd catch him by surprise and do it myself. I'm just moving on. I've wasted too much time on him already. I'll have to talk to him about what he wants to do with the house. I need some dirt on him to keep Tessa away from him. You think you can do that for me?"

"I'm on it," he said. Dad owns a private security company. He knows all sorts of people who specialize in dirty deeds. They're not dirt cheap, but they owe him favors. This wouldn't be a problem. I was a little surprised that Brandon would risk that. He was really stupid. How had I not known that?

Now, the problem was explaining to Tessa why her daddy wasn't going to be around anymore. Somehow, "he's a moron," didn't seem like quite the answer. I didn't know what I was going to tell him, either. I had thought he loved our daughter, but, obviously, he loved strange pussy and didn't give a shit about anyone else.

I had it to do, so I went in and held Tessa on my lap. "Honey, we're going to be staying with Grandpa and Gram for a while," I told her. "Is that okay?"

"Yes, I LOVE staying with them," she said.

"Well, Daddy is going to stay at our house," I told her. "It's just going to be us for a while."

She looked a little less excited, but she kind of got a gleam in her eye. I knew what this was about! Ever since she could talk, she'd been asking me for a puppy. I liked dogs, but we never had a fenced yard. I could see the calculations running through that little brain.

"Okay," I told her. She looked surprised that I could read her mind. "If it's okay with Grandpa and Gram, you can have a puppy. You have to ask them. If they say no, that's it, okay? You can't pester them about it."

"Really? No, Mommy, I won't. Yeet!" She was ecstatic. She ran out to ask and I relaxed for a minute. I was exhausted. I think I drifted off for a minute, because Mom was sitting beside me, stroking my hair.

"I'm so sorry, baby," her soft voice came to me in a whisper. For some reason, that unleashed the floodgates and she gathered me into her arms as I wept out my sadness, my pain, my sense of betrayal. It took me a long time to get my composure back. She just held me, and her gentle love comforted me. I managed to pull myself together.

"We'll get through this," she told me. "Do you think there's a chance that you'll get back with Brandon?"

"No, Mom," I said. "Not in a million years. Can you imagine how you'd feel if Dad told you he wanted to sleep with another woman and pimp you out to her husband? It makes me want to puke that I was ever with him. He hid it well, Mom. I never suspected he was like that. I knew he was a party guy in college but I thought he'd grown up. Wow, was I ever wrong. I guess the leopard really doesn't change his spots."

"I guess it's over, then," she said. "You're going to be fine, baby. He's an idiot to let you get away."

"Yeah, you have to say that, you're my mom," I grinned at her. "Thanks, though. I am going to be fine. Are you and Dad okay with the puppy?"

"Yes, you know we always had a dog when you girls were home," she smiled. "You watch Michael. He'll pretend to be all gruff and grouchy, but he'll have it on his lap before you know it. He always loved your dogs."

It was two days before I heard from Brandon. It was just a text at first. "When are you coming home? We need to talk." As the week turned into two, he sent texts, called me a dozen times a day and sent emails. I listened, but didn't respond. I was waiting on Dad.

He came in after work one evening and took me to his office. When we were sitting down, he pulled a file folder out of his desk. "He's been cheating on you with Dianne and two more women for three months," he said. "They're part of some sort of swinging club. I guess they forgot to mention it to you. Are you ready to pull the plug on him?"

"Yes, I've been waiting on you," I said. "Are you ready?"

"Everything's in place," he said. "I assume you want to keep him away from Tessa?"

"Absolutely," I said. "He's done enough harm the way it is. Do you want your granddaughter to spend the weekends in a house where orgies are going on?"

"No, I don't. He'll be in jail tomorrow," he said. "Did you know they were doing drugs, Smith? They snort coke and have orgies all night. Brandon is their supplier. I found out where he keeps his stash. He'll be arrested for drug trafficking. He'll be convicted and go away for a long time. Are you sure this is what you want?"

"Yes, it's over, Dad. No, I didn't know he was using. I know that all three of them did in college. I thought they had given that up. Brandon swore he had." I felt a little sad. Five years of my life, wasted on this empty shell. I sighed. "I'm going to go see him. I need the closure."

"I understand," he said. "You want backup?"

"No, he's no threat," I said. "You taught me better than that. He probably doesn't know. He'll never know. He thinks you install burglar alarms."

There was music playing from the backyard when I got to our house. I walked around and there were about ten people there around the pool. I could smell weed. They were in various stages of undress. They looked ridiculous. Beer bellies, hairy backs and saggy boobs were everywhere. Dianne was sitting on Brandon's lap and she was topless. Gravity hadn't been kind to her. Brandon saw me and started frantically trying to push her off his lap. When she saw me, she went bright red and scrambled away. I turned and started back toward the front porch.

"Smith, wait!" I heard Brandon call. "Smith, hold up."

I kept walking and he came running through the gate, trying to put his flip-flops on. I was almost to the porch when he caught me. He grabbed my arm, spinning me around and making me stumble.

"Let go of my arm," I told him. "If you ever touch me again, you'll regret it." He looked a little startled, but he did let go.

"What are you doing?" he asked. "Can't we at least talk?"

"That's why I came," I told him. "Jesus, Brandon, you turned out to be a real tool, didn't you."

"It's just a party, Smith," he said. "You could come around and have a drink. Just be friendly and relax with our friends. It wouldn't kill you loosen up a little, you know. This could be something we could do together, babe. Just be a little open minded here."

"I'm divorcing you, Brandon," I told him. "I just came by to tell you. I'm also giving you a break. You should leave town, tonight. Just take your shit and go. Don't ever come back."

"What the hell are you talking about?" he asked. "I'm not going anywhere. When are you going to let me see Tessa?"

"I'm telling you, Brandon, it's over. There's no way I would ever leave her alone with a sleaze like you. You're never going to see her or me again. If you leave now, I'll let you go."

"Are you threatening me?" he asked. "What happened to you, Smith?"

"I found out that my husband is a cheating bastard," I said. "I'm just telling you that you need to go. Take all the money in our accounts that you can get, pawn everything that's valuable, get on a plane, a train or an automobile and just go. Don't look back and don't come back. If you disappear, and I never hear of you again, I won't come looking for you. Goodbye, Brandon."

I started for the door and he grabbed my arm again. He squeezed hard this time and it hurt. I would have a bruise tomorrow. I had warned him. When he spun me around, I kept moving and my left toe caught him just under the ear on the side of the neck. He dropped to his knees and as I kept spinning, my right heel sunk into his belly just after the right back-fist broke his nose. He went down in a heap and I took his phone out of his back pocket and walked out. Closure felt good. I stood on the porch for a minute, and then I called 911. I gave my name as Jill Sinclair. She was our next-door neighbor. I told the 911 operator that I had gone over to "the Givens'" house and discovered my 14 year old daughter there and Mr. Givens with several of his friends, naked. I wanted them arrested for exposing themselves to my daughter. I tossed his phone into the bushes and went on my way. I expected they'd at least have a hard time explaining being naked in my backyard, and at the worst, they'd be arrested. I was hoping for arrested for indecent exposure and published in the paper in the police reports. How cool would that be?

I hoped I hadn't messed up Dad's plan. As it turned out, I expedited it. The police didn't find any underage girls, but they found naked people smoking weed. That led to a search of the house and the vehicles. They found more weed in Bill and Dianne's car and two kilos of coke inside Brandon's spare tire.

It didn't take long for the swingers to distance themselves from Brandon. They wanted no part of cocaine trafficking charges. There was a nice write-up in the paper about a drug bust at a swingers party. I was questioned, but when they found out I'd been living with my parents for two weeks and I'd filed divorce papers against Brandon, they left me alone.

He went down for the big 5-15. The divorce was a slam-dunk and so was the custody hearing. When you show up in handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit, it's sort of prejudicial to any shot at seeing your daughter again. Tessa asked about him occasionally, at first. She was pretty wrapped up in her new puppy. Puppy is an awkward word for a 35-pound ball of fur, drool and loose skin. A 12-week old English Mastiff is quite a beast. She fell in love with him at the store where we met his breeders, and held him while he licked her all the way home.

Dad helped me get a fence up, and I'm spending a lot of time being the best parent I can be to my daughter. I have a home gym now, and when I'm writing, a little blonde angel comes and climbs up on my lap. A big drooling puppy comes in, and I close my computer and love on them. I'm working on those irritating habits of mine. My daughter's worth it. I date a little. I'm in no hurry. If Prince Charming comes along, I'll grab him. I spent too much time with Prince Harming to be in a hurry. If he doesn't come along, I like myself. I rarely find myself irritating.